What: "Harvey," presented by the Fort Morgan High School Drama Department

When: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 2 and 3, 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4

Where: Glenn Miller Auditorium, Fort Morgan High School.

Cost: $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, available at the door.

More info: Morgan Larsen, 970-867-5648

An extended family, an invisible giant rabbit, a case of mistaken identity and doctors at a sanitarium all lead to lots of laughs in "Harvey," a 1944 Pulitzer-Prize-winning play that is Fort Morgan High School Drama Department's spring play.

Psychiatrist Dr. Chumley (Travis Freeman), right, gets some disturbing news as, from left, Dr. Sanderson (Trevor Gerken), nurse Ruth Kelly (Emma Solberg) and Mrs. Chumley wait to hear what he has found out during Fort Morgan High School's production of "Harvey." The show will be on the Glenn Miller Auditorium stage this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

The student actors will take to the stage in the Glenn Miller Auditorium this Friday, Saturday and Sunday to bring these characters and crazy (or are they?) plot twists to life.

For FMHS senior Matthew Hofman, who plays lead Elwood P. Dowd, this role was a culmination of what he has learned from his previous roles in shows like "Cinderella," "All My Sons" and "Shrek."

Dowd shares the story of his invisible best friend, Harvey, with his family and expects them to believe and accept that the 6-foot-1-inch white rabbit is real. From there, drama ensues, including the afore-mentioned mistaken identity at a sanitarium, of all places.

But it was still a challenge to play a character that "spends a lot of time talking to an invisible character," he said. "I guess you have to have a little crazy in you to do it."

He pointed out that with all his apparent monologues, "there's no one there to rescue you."

Fellow senior Nancy Hochanadel, who plays Dowd's sister Veta Louise Simmons, found her role's rapid-fire emotional changes to be her acting challenge in this show.

"One minute she's really happy and the next she's super-frustrated," Hochanadel said. "She loves Elwood, but man, does he make her mad."

"When I'm me, it's one emotion," but Veta is all over the board and sometimes faking emotions, Hochanadel said. "That's made it hard to keep character sometimes."

For Katlyn Moehr, playing Myrtle Mae Simmons also was challenging because of drastic shifts in character and emotion. The senior had to figure out how to quickly go from angry to sassy to naive to vulnerable.

Travis Freeman, also a senior, found his character, psychiatrist Dr. Chumley, to be somewhat easier than his last role of Lord Farquaad in "Shrek." But that was mostly due to not having to be on his knees to play the doctor.

Veta Louise Simmons (Nancy Hochanadel) throws out her arms in exasperation over her brother's obsession with "Harvey," supposedly a tall, invisible white rabbit, while talking with psychiatrist Dr. Chumley (Travis Freeman) in Fort Morgan High School's production of "Harvey," on stage Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Glenn Miller Auditorium. Little does she yet know, her brother placed a painting of himself with Harvey in front of the portrait of their mother. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

"Dr. Chumlee is kind of irritated a lot of the time — at Dowd in particular," Freeman said. "It's a fun role to play, with a lot of emotion."

All four of these student actors encouraged people to come see the show.

"It's a different type of play that we've ever done," Freeman said.

"If they came last year, this one's more light-hearted," Hofman said.

"It's a lot of fun," Hochanadel said.

But it's also "a roller coaster of a show," Moehr said, promising plenty of drama.

Drama teacher and "Harvey" director Morgan Larsen said she had been anxious to stage this show.

"'Harvey' is one of the most well-known American plays. I've actually wanted to do 'Harvey' for a long time," she said. "I was really intimidated by doing the set changes, but we had practice during ('Shrek')."

Sanitarium orderly Wilson (Jay Armstrong) reads an encyclopedia entry about a strange word, "pooka," that he heard Elwood P. Dowd say. While reading the entry, a strange thing happens that pulls together some of the mystery of "Harvey" for the audience at Fort Morgan High School's spring play, on stage Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Glenn Miller Auditorium. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

But she thinks the Fort Morgan audience will enjoy the show, even with the darkened breaks for changing out the set.

Larsen also hopes that fans of the Jimmy Stewart movie version of the "Harvey" story will come check out FMHS's take on it.

"It's just a really charming, classic comedy, but it still asks some pretty important questions about what's important in life," she said.

The show will go on at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets, available at the door, cost $8 for adults and $5 for seniors and students.

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